I think, for Christmas, I have to read Russells Conquest Of Happiness. According to Tim Madigan it appears to be a pre-req to reading his new book on

His comments about Aristotles three kinds of friendship (ones of utility, pleasure, and goodness) resonated with me, so I would believe, after I read Russell, that Tims book will be on my reading list.

Peter Stone also edited another Russell book with Tim, which may be of interest if I get into Russells works and this may provide a quick overview of his some of his work:

My local WH Smith does not seem to stock the paper copy anymore so I have been forced to download the Kindle edition from Amazon. It works quite well actually and I feel I am being coerced into reading the whole magazine.

As part of my education, I have resolved to go up to London 1-2 time a month for Philosophy related meetups and lectures. I went to one on a Wednesday just passed on Islam and Philosophy, as in the link below:

The presenter made some interesting points in his criticism of current democracy which respects the majority blindly without any moral code or guidance, but I really think there can be no other choice in this world. Islam he said, in one word represents justice while Christianity represents love (fair enough). Sharia law is based on 6 principles which among them include the right to family, education, property, and dignity. All values, he reminded us, were included in the American Constitution. Fair dues for him to do such a presentation though. I left early in the question and answer session as I had to catch a train. One questioner appeared quite irate about his criticism of current democracy, as it appeared that his argument gave no benefit to atheists having any moral code. Overall I preferred the meetups in earlier this year, especially Richard Barons on Thought Experiments in Ethics. Shafeeq did remind us of the debt we do owe to the old Islamic world for reviving the interest in classical Greek philosophy though. Later I listened to two good podcasts from In Our time on